1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly to a connector having excellent versatility that can be used for connecting flexible printed boards of various thicknesses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent No. 2,683,709 describes an example of conventional zero insertion force electric connector as a connector for connecting flexible printed boards.
Thus, in this zero insertion force electric connector, a rotary cam member 100 is supported on an insulating housing 4 so that the rotary cam member can rotate about a cylindrical portion 102 as a rotation center. By rotating the rotary cam member 100, part of a terminal 150 is lifted and then a flat flexible cable FFC is inserted. Then, the rotary cam member 100 is rotated in the opposite direction and a load applied to the terminal 150 is released, whereby the flat flexible cable FFC is sandwiched by the terminal 150, ensuring electric connection
However, with the above-described zero insertion force electric connector, the rotation center of the cylindrical portion 102 of the rotary cam member 100 is fixed and cannot shift in the vertical direction. For this reason, when a printed board with a thickness larger than that of the flexible printed board having a predetermined thickness is inserted, the control level cannot completely return to the original position in which it produces no effect on the terminal 150. As a result, a state is assumed in which the terminal 150 remains partially pulled up by the rotary cam member 100, and the desired contact pressure cannot be ensured. Therefore, because printed boards of different thicknesses cannot be connected, the versatility is low. Further, even with the flexible printed boards of the same thickness specifications, usually there is a large spread in thickness between the resin flexible printed boards, the drawbacks similar to those described above easily occur, and the contact reliability is low.